San Jose woman dies after car goes off Monterey County cliff

BIG SUR -- The identity of a San Jose woman who died when her car went off a cliff near the Bixby Bridge was released Wednesday by the Monterey County coroner's unit.

Nina Shizumi Sakima, 20, died Jan. 19 after her 1991 Honda went off Highway 1 and fell about 420 feet to the beach.

Sakima and a 25-year-old man were thrown from the car and landed on rocks about 300 feet below the highway. Sakima was dead at the scene and the man was airlifted to a San Jose hospital.

KSBW identified the man as Daniel Gowans, 25, of San Jose. Gowans was in a medically induced coma at a Bay Area trauma center and is suffering from life-threatening spinal injuries, officials told the television station.

Sakima graduated from Leigh High School in 2011 and was attending West Valley College, according to a memorial page posted on the Northern California Field Hockey Association's website. Sakima was a player in the field hockey league.